A true giant of South-east Asian sport

NAYPYIDAW — On the streets of Yangon, Mandalay and Pathein, she is affectionately known as “Ama Gyi” — or big sister in Burmese — and is a household name for those who remember her South-east Asian Peninsular (SEAP) Games and South-east Asian (SEA) Games exploits.

But here at the 27th SEA Games in Naypyidaw, Jennifer Tin Lay goes about her duties as a track official unnoticed by the many young spectators in the Wunna Thiekdi Stadium.

And the irony is not lost on the 64-year-old former thrower, who was a superstar for Myanmar in the 1960s and 70s.

“The youngsters here don’t recognise me, but anyone over 45 will, so their fathers and mothers will remember me,” the 15-time SEA Games champion (1967-1983) told TODAY. “In Myanmar, everywhere I go, they know me — my name, my height and they call me big sister. I joke that I can help them to borrow money!”

She is considered one of the Games’ all-time greats with nine shot put and six discus gold medals. She retired in 1983 but together with former Filipino long jump and sprint queen Elma-Muros Posadas are the most successful athletes in SEA Games history with 15 golds.

The versatile Tin Lay also won gold with the women’s volleyball team when Myanmar last staged the Games in 1969.

These days, her name, and those of her former track and field team-mates such as Jimmy Crampton — who dominated the men’s 800m (four golds), 1,500m (six) and 5,000m (two) from 1969 to 1979 — and distance runner Than Than Lwin are unfamiliar to the younger generation.

Decades of military rule saw sports take a backseat in Myanmar, before a civilian government was installed in 2011.

“All sports broke down, it was not about money being invested, but the government didn’t encourage it. We have no throwers now, and the athletes we have are not at SEA Games level,” said Tin Lay.

“Myanmar must do a lot more in schools, and have inter-school, inter-college and inter-state competitions which we had in the past.”

Born in Pathein in the Ayeyarwady region to a river pilot father and half-German mother, the 1.78m tall Tin Lay showed sporting aptitude at a young age. She picked up golf at eight, tried volleyball, basketball, softball, high jump and 100m before settling for the shot put.

At 18, she won her first gold medal at the 1967 SEAP Games in Bangkok in the shot put, kicking off a golden run that lasted till the 1983 Games in Singapore. Training for athletics and volleyball also proved a challenge.

“In 1969, I had a German coach, a Burmese coach for volleyball, (and) a Russian coach and they fought over who and when I had to train,” she recalled. “In the end, I went to volleyball three times a week, and sometimes I did two training sessions a day for each sport. My German coach was tough on me — I had to do 150 throws a day and if he didn’t like them, they didn’t count.”

It eventually paid off. Aside from a place in SEA Games history, she still owns Myanmar’s national women’s shot put record of 14.38m. The distance would have placed her fourth at this Games behind Singapore’s Zhang Guirong (14.99) and Du Xianhui (14.92), and Thailand’s Sawitri Thongchao (14.82).

Tin Lay and Singapore’s James Wong have won the most golds in a single event — nine — at the SEAP and SEA Games. Wong failed to claim the record outright after finishing fifth in the men’s discus. It is a record she still savours.

“Once upon a time, I felt really tired from all that training. But now I’m proud nobody can do it,” she said.

These days, she divides her time between her part-time job as a physical education teacher at the International School Myanmar in Yangon, and gardening and golf.

This week, she will head to her hometown of Pathein to catch the sailing action in Ngwe Saung. Apart from Crampton, who is now based in Perth, many of her former team-mates are volunteers at the athletics competition which ends tomorrow. She also featured in the Games’ opening ceremony on Dec 11 as a torch bearer, but is just happy to be part of Myanmar’s coming out party.

“My friends from Singapore and Malaysia have been asking me for years about when Myanmar is going to host the SEA Games,” she said.

“I am so proud we are hosting it. It’s a great feeling, because by the time we host our next one, I would have kicked the bucket!”